Setting the Record Straight

From the man who led America’s counterterrorist operations after 9/11, first time, the CIA officer who led the epic struggle against al-Qa’ida tells how the Agency battled to prevent a second wave of attacks. Learn the true story behind why the CIA’s controversial interrogation techniques were developed, when they were used, and how they saved countless lives around the world.

Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., a Puerto Rican-born CIA officer with a wealth of experience in covert operations in Latin America suddenly found himself in a very different kind of fight following al Qa’ida’s attacks on New York and Washington.

In Hard Measures he discloses never-before-revealed details on CIA operations which were approved by the highest levels of the U.S. government, certified as legal by the Department of Justice and fully supported by
bipartisan leadership of Congressional oversight committees.

Rodriguez describes how the CIA, working closely with overseas allies, worked feverishly to prevent devastating follow-on attacks in the months after 9/11. He explodes a number of widely-held myths about CIA tactics and provides examples of how the intelligence gathered from senior detainees saved countless lives and helped lead to locating and killing Usama bin Ladin.

Taking readers inside the cells where top al-Qa’ida operatives such as Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad were held, Rodriguez provides many previously undisclosed insights about the men behind the world’s deadliest terrorist attacks.

Hard Measures is also the story of how, as memories of the September 11th horrors faded, so too did the resolve of many American leaders. Beset by leaks and misinformation, the men and women of the U.S. intelligence community
soon found themselves the targets of second-guessing by some of the leaders they were pledged to serve and bereft of important tools necessary to deal with the still-looming terrorist threat.